


The Car, The Poison, and The Treehouse

by addictiontofiction13



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Alternate Universe - Teenagers, Friendship, Hallucinations, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Medication, Other, Out of Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 13:18:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7716229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/addictiontofiction13/pseuds/addictiontofiction13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don't say my name. It's not right. The food is poisoned. He's real! He's real! Josh is real! Don't say my name.</p><p>(I suck at summaries, and this one really can't have one. Please read it?)</p><p>*edit*<br/>(I've been told there is a need for a disclaimer. This is not a romantic fic, there is, in fact, no romance at all.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Car, The Poison, and The Treehouse

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Twenty One Pilots fic, uhm... I haven't written in at least a year, so I apologize if it's bad. I got this idea last night while listening to Forest on repeat. And the words kinda just kept coming. So please enjoy!

The lady with the pen and fancy glasses is staring at me. Staring into my soul. Josh is sitting behind her, looking at the things she keeps writing on the yellow paper. He’s making a weird face and it’s making me wonder what she’s writing, but I won’t ask. Josh told me not to pay attention to him when other people are in the room. They’ll tell me bad things about him.

“Tyler,” the lady with the pen says, my name coming off her lips like acid.

“Hmm?” I ask, but I don’t look at her. I’m still looking at Josh, who is now smiling at me. His smile is like a cold drink in the desert. Refreshing, life-clinging.

“Have you seen Josh today?” she asks. My eyes instantly fall on her. Josh is making a no motion, not speaking.

“No,” I say, doing what he says. I always do what Josh says. He knows what is best for me. I trust him.

“When did you last speak to him?” I don’t like this question. She asks me this every time i see her. Every tuesday.

“Last night. He sang me to sleep,” I answer honestly.

“What did he sing you?”

This question is hard. Why are all these questions so hard? I put a hand to my head, and the pounding starts. My eyes drift to the ceiling, down to the floor, then to each wall on the sides.

“He sang a pretty song. It helped me sleep.”

“What were the words, Tyler?”

Don’t say my name. Don’t say my name. It’s all wrong.

“Why won’t you let me go? Do I threaten all your plans?”

“Is that all he sang?”

“Yes,” I lie. Josh nods in approval. I want to smile, but I don’t. She would ask if Josh is here. I only smile in front of Josh. She knows that.

“Did it help you fall asleep?”

That’s a weird question. “Yes.”

“Do you think I’ll be able to meet Josh soon? Or your mother?”

Josh shakes his head. No, not yet.

***

Josh lays down on my bed, and I sit across from him. We stare at each other for a few minutes, and I have to remember that I need to breathe. He doesn’t. At least, not right now. He smiles at me as I take a breath. I smile at him, too.

“You should smile more,” he says, and I shake my head.

“Smiling is for happy people.”

“You are a happy people, Tyler.”

My name sounds like honeydew coming from his lips. It’s right. He can say my name whenever he wants to.

“I’m only happy when I’m with you,” I answer honestly.

“Don’t tell other people that anymore. They’ll give you those pills that make me go away again.”

I nod. I don’t want Josh to go away. I never want Josh to go away.

Josh sits up and runs the back of his hand down my cheek. It doesn’t feel right, not like it used to. “Do you think your mom will ever believe I’m here?” he asks me and I shrug. How am I supposed to know? No one ever believes me.

“They say you were gone years ago,” I reply, and I feel my chest tighten as splatters of blood on the walls begin to come into my mind. Tears blur my vision.

“Tyler, don’t cry,” Josh begs, staring at me with those deep brown eyes that remind me of happier times, when I could feel his hands on me.

“Mom keeps telling me you’re not here, Josh,” I say, wrapping my arms around myself.

“Hey. Look at me.” I do. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

“You’re here.”

***

“Tyler?” I don’t acknowledge my name. I keep staring into the bowl of food in front of me. It’s poisoned. It doesn’t taste right. “Tyler, honey?”

Mom puts a hand on my shoulder and I flinch away from her. I don’t want to be touched. It doesn’t feel right. Nothing feels right… not since…

“Tyler, we’re going to go see Dr. Black tomorrow, okay?” mom says.

“Tomorrow is Friday,” I say.

“Tomorrow is Tuesday, Tyler.”

I look up at her with wide eyes. Where did the week go? Josh normally tells me the days when I wake up. Josh is normally with me when I wake up. He’s been gone, though. I want Josh back. Where did Josh go?

The food is poisoned.

I push my bowl away from me. I’m not going to eat anymore. Not until he comes back.

“Mom?”

“Yes, honey?” she says, picking up my bowl and emptying it in the sink.

“Am I taking medicine again?”

She pauses, her hand almost at the faucet. “What gave you that idea?” Her voice sounds weird.

“I don’t like the medicine, mom. Josh goes away.”

“Josh isn’t real, Tyler,” she says, turning around to face me. I stare into her eyes, they’re full of hot red. She’s angry? I should be angry. She took away Josh again.

“He’s real. He’s realer than me or you or Dr. Black or anyone.”

“Tyler, Josh is dead. You’re not seeing him, the real him.”

I put my hands over my ears and the pounding starts again. I scream. “He’s real! Josh is real! He isn’t dead!”

***

The lady with the pen and yellow paper stares at me. She hasn’t spoken since I sat down across from her in the black, comfy couch. I try to look anywhere, but not at her. She’s the real reason I can’t see Josh anymore.

“Have you been eating?” Dr. Black finally asks.

“The food is poisoned,” I reply.

“How is it poisoned, Tyler?”

Don’t say my name.

“Do you ever wonder why we pick songs to sing that reminds us of things nobody cares about?” She gets angry when I ask the questions. “I think we’re more suicidal than ever now.”

“Are you having suicidal thoughts?”

That’s the hardest question. How do I answer that question?

“I don’t know,” I answer. “Josh is gone. For now.”

“Why is Josh gone?” she asks, even though she already knows.

“The food is poisoned,” I say again.

“I see… So you think we gave you medicine in your food.”

“I know you did.” I glare at her. Josh is gone because of her. I can’t forget that.

***

I kick my feet, staring into the trees. It’s so… quiet here. Silent. In the trees. I run my hand over the wood of the treehouse Josh and I built so many years ago. He still hasn’t come back yet. I wonder how long until he will.

The food doesn’t taste as funny as it did, but it still does. I guess they lowered my dosage. Mom said my liver was failing. Too much poison.

Mom says I won’t make it to my seventeenth birthday if Dr. Black doesn’t figure out how to regulate my medicine. I heard her tell dad over the phone. They don’t talk anymore really, and mom says it’s not my fault, but I know better.

“Hey,” I say. “When are you coming back?”

“What do you mean?” I turn around and Josh is leaning against the window of the treehouse, inside.

“You’ve been gone.”

“I’ve been here this whole time. You couldn’t see me, could you?”

“The food is poisoned.”

Josh nods. “I told you not to talk about me anymore.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Everything is… what’s the word…” Josh is cute when he can’t think of words.

“Morbid?”

“Morbid,” he tries out the word, and it sounds good coming from his lips.

“That’s a bad word.” I smile.

“It is,” he agrees, but he smiles, too. “It’s going to snow.”  
I look up at the sky, and I didn’t even realize how cold it is. The clouds are dark, waiting to explode the coldness further down on us. “I like the snow.”

“I remember,” he says.

I shiver. “It’s colder in my head than this.” I sigh.

“I know.” Josh sighs, and I wish I could hug him. He always gave the best hugs. “We should go home.”

I nod, but something stops me. The snow starts to fall. I smile. “You were right. It’s snowing.”

“Hey, Tyler?”

“Yeah?”

“Your twisted thoughts are like snow on the rooftops.”

“What does that mean?”

“Whatever you want it to mean,” he says, and he flashes another smile. I love that smile.

***

Your twisted thoughts are like snow on the rooftops.

My eyes are focused out the window, watching all of the snow drift down and land on the rooftops and on the ground. It’s dangerous on the road.

My twisted thoughts are like snow on the road. That’s what he should have said. That would have made more sense. My thoughts are scary. They made Josh. No, Josh is real.

Isn’t he?

***

“Breathe, Tyler,” I repeat to myself. Inhaling and exhaling. I’m shaking. The dark is coming further. It keeps coming. It’s almost here. The eyes are glaring at me from the dark. They’re glowing. “Breathe, Tyler.” My lungs fill and then deflate.  
The dark’s not taking prisoners tonight.

“Tyler!”

My eyes open and mom is hovering over me, her hands are on my shoulders and she’s shaking me.

“Tyler, there’s been an accident.”

“What?” My voice sounds weird. What’s going on?

“Tyler, it’s Josh.”

“Josh?” Oh, no. No, Tyler, wake up. You need to wake up.

We’re in the car. It’s silent. Like it is in our treehouse. Somebody stole our car radio, so we’re always just sitting in this silence. It’s black outside. It’s so early in the morning, or is it late at night? I don’t ask.

Tyler, wake up.

“I got a call from his mother,” mom told me before we left the house. “It… Tyler, I’m so sorry…”

Why won’t she tell me what’s going on?

We park in front of Josh’s house, but I’m out of the car and running before it’s fully stopped. Mom yells at me from the car, but I can’t stop. I need to see him. I open the door and don’t even say hello. Everyone is yelling my name, even the men dressed in blue. Josh’s mom is crying as she calls out for me. I’m up the stairs before I register that she has. I’m in his room and I finally stop.

Blood. Thick, hot, red, pulsing. Blood. Everywhere.

A mess of blue hair, tangled on the floor, mixed with that red blood. A gun beside him. He… He promised me he wouldn’t do it. He promised. He didn’t do this. He wouldn’t.

“Tyler,” my mom has finally caught up to me and she’s grabbing my arm. She’s trying to pull me away from him. “Tyler, baby, you can’t see this.”  
“He wouldn’t. Josh! No! Wake up! Wake up!”

Wake up, Tyler.

Tyler.

Wake up.

***

Josh is sitting over me, yelling my name. “Tyler, wake up!”

I stare at him, tears hot and heavy running down my cheeks. “You’re not real.”

“Tyler…” He reached a hand out to me, but I slap him away. My hand goes right through him.

“You’re dead. Josh, you’re dead!”

“Don’t forget about me,” he pleads. “You said you’d never forget about me.”

“You said you’d never kill yourself!” I reply, and the tears won’t stop and my heart is racing in my chest and my head starts pounding. “You’re the migraines! You’re the crazy! You’re the reason the food is poisoned!”

“Tyler, baby, is everything okay?” mom calls from outside my room. She opens the door and I wipe at my eyes hastily.

“Get Josh out of here!”

He looks at me. “Tyler, don’t do this!” he yells.

I’m sorry, Josh. I have to.

***

The rooms are all white. All the people who work here are dressed in white. Are they angels? Have their wings not been taunted by the demons yet? I’m cold. No one can hear me cry here.

My roommate reminds me of Josh. He calls himself Blurryface. Everyone says he’s not real, too. All the doctors. All my doctors.

Blurryface likes to sit over me while I’m trying to sleep. He’s tells me I’m never getting out of here. He says Josh hated me. That’s why he killed himself. He’s calls me a Heathen. What does Heathen mean, Josh?

I don’t like Blurryface. I miss Josh.

I miss our treehouse. I miss my mom. I miss his blue hair.

Blurryface has red hair, and glowing eyes, like the ones in my room. He says Josh was protecting me from him. But I sent Josh away.

I asked my doctors to poison the food. It’ll make Blurryface go away, just like I’ll go away.

I want to go away.


End file.
